There is a fundamental misunderstanding that continues to shape infrastructure discussions across much of Africa, Kenya included. Governments often assume that because a project is nationally important, investors will automatically finance it. They will not.

Investors do not finance projects because they are politically desirable, strategically significant, or featured in national development plans. They finance projects because they are bankable.

This distinction matters. Kenya has no shortage of infrastructure ambitions. Roads, railways, ports, airports, power projects, water systems, irrigation schemes and urban infrastructure all occupy an important place in our development agenda. But a nationally important project is not necessarily an investable project.

Before capital can flow, there must be confidence that the project is technically sound, financially viable, economically justified, environmentally sustainable, socially acceptable, institutionally ready and capable of being implemented without major disruptions.

This is where many infrastructure projects encounter difficulties. The quality of project preparation remains one of Kenya's most overlooked development challenges.

Investors and international financiers increasingly require robust feasibility studies, financial models, environmental and social safeguards, resettlement plans, indigenous peoples assessments, procurement strategies, gender analyses, implementation arrangements and sound financial managementsystems.

Unfortunately,manyprojectsreachthefinancingstage with gaps in precisely these areas. The consequences are familiar: project delays, cost overruns, contractual disputes, financing challenges and implementation failures. These problems do not originate during construction. They originate during project preparation.

Ironically, the funding required to prepare projects is often the hardest to secure,despite representing only a tiny fraction of total project costs.Around the world, this challenge is addressed through dedicated technical assistance and project preparation facilities funded through grants. 

Such facilities provide what development practitioners often call "free money" for feasibility studies, transaction advisory services, safeguards preparation, engineering designs and project structuring.

Countries that consistently attract infrastructure investment understand a simple truth: capital follows preparation. The countries that win are not those with the grandest projects, but those with the best-prepared projects.

This is why Kenya's National Infrastructure Fund (NIF)must become the country's project preparation factory. Its most important role should be to maintain a rolling, multi-year pipeline of screened, prioritised and continuously updated bankable projects across government departments and sectors.

Atthetouchofabutton,governmentagencies,financiers,and investors should be able to retrieve current feasibility studies, safeguard documentation, land acquisition plans, engineering designs, demand forecasts, procurement strategies, and investment structures. No project should begin seeking financing before these fundamentals are in place.